Data curation and governance patents: who is filing, how fast, and where claim space is still open
One assignee alone holds 533 of 2,652 records, and the top 5 filers together account for 35.0% of everything in scope — concentration sits hard at the top of this field. Annual publications rose from 67 in 2017 to a peak of 563 in 2025. The 2021-to-2024 span alone shows 82% growth (195 to 355), and 2026's count of 121 so far is a partial year, not a slowdown signal.
- 1PURE STORAGE INC20.1%
- 2DIGITAL GLOBAL SYSTEMS INC5.4%
- 3AB INITIO TECHNOLOGY LLC4.0%
- 4ORACLE INT CORP3.3%
- 5INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINE CORPORATION2.2%
See the full data curation & governance patent landscape analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Frequently asked questions
Who holds the most patents in data curation and governance?
One assignee leads the ranked field with 533 of the 2,652 records in scope, well ahead of the fifth-ranked filer at 59 and the tenth-ranked filer at 35. That gap indicates a genuinely concentrated field rather than a gradual decline from first to tenth place. The top 5 filers combined hold 35.0% of all records, and the top 10 hold 42.9%, so a large share of activity sits with a small number of organizations even though 100 companies appear in the full ranking.
Is the data curation and governance patent field growing or slowing down?
It is growing. Filings rose from 195 in 2021 to 355 in 2024, an increase of 82% over that three-year span, and 2025 is the highest year on record so far at 563. Figures for 2025 and 2026 will keep rising as publications catch up, since patent publication typically lags filing by around 18 months — so treat the most recent one to two years as undercounted rather than as evidence of a slowdown.
What technology areas overlap most with data governance patents?
Electric digital data processing (G06F) appears in 75.9% of the 2,652 records, making it the dominant classification by a wide margin. AI-based computing (G06N) follows at 22.4%, digital transmission (H04L) at 19.1%, and business/commerce data processing (G06Q) at 17.3%. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these percentages add up to more than 100%, and they show governance claims increasingly written alongside AI and networked-pipeline language rather than as a standalone category.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Data Curation & Governance Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.